An Edinburgh woman has spoken out on how going private abroad for IVF treatment brought her "miracle" baby boy after 18 painful years of attempting to navigate through a 'crumbling' NHS led to nine separate miscarriages and ectopic pregnancy.
Many couples faced with the heart-breaking costs of IVF treatment are having to consider private treatment due to growing NHS waiting lists and budget cuts, reports the Express.
For the estimated one in seven couples who have difficulty in conceiving, the prospect of having to raise an average of £5,000 to £8,000 for a treatment that might not succeed the first time, or ever, is not surprisingly daunting.
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Pamela Mackenzie, who volunteers for non-profit charitable organisation the International Fertility Company, hopes to educate other individuals and couples struggling with their choices and how going abroad can be a better option and even a seed of hope for many people across Scotland and the wider UK.
Pamela decided to look into her options for undertaking IVF abroad after not finding adequate treatment under the NHS, and the mounting costs of going private saw her astounded at "how much cheaper they are and higher success rates," going abroad, with many countries being on average around 50% cheaper for IVF treatment.
"I went to a private clinic in Glasgow because I had two frozen embryos left and the cells hadn't been multiplying but they did the transfer anyway knowing it would fail and I paid two and a half grand for that," she said.
The 41-year-old proud mum to Patrick, who will turn four in November, says she often looks at him and says "I can't believe I have a wee boy."
She said when speaking to the Scottish Express: "A friend had gone to a clinic in Prague and said she had success after so many failures and I thought to myself I am going to give it a try, so I phoned them and they suggested using donor embryos due to my medical condition.
"I had never even had this suggested to me before. I had ended up with a positive pregnancy on the first try at the Prague clinic so after 18 years to get a positive one I was a bit worried but as the time went on I thought 'this is actually going to happen' it's incredible, it's just a complete miracle.
"When you go through so many years of things not working and things going wrong you do lose hope but the idea of being able to give back with this volunteer work and help others in my situation is a good feeling."
Pamela had developed fertility issues from a young age, after being diagnosed with PCOS at the age of 12. But she says it was not until she was 26 years old she started fertility treatment through NHS Scotland, at which point she had sadly endured a few miscarriages, and due to budget cuts and staffing issues, the "basic" treatments provided meant Pamela wasn't getting anywhere.
Not only was she in an uphill battle against strained NHS resources for IVF, but her medical condition known as antiphospholipid syndrome means her body can attack her own cells making pregnancy using her own eggs impossible.
It was at this point the Edinburgh mum met Andrew Coutts, founder and CEO of the International Fertility Company, in 2019 on her second round of treatment in Prague, who was inspired by her story and saw the potential in how she could help others.
"Before I met Andrew when I first went to Prague to have my son it was so hard to find information. I spent hours myself researching on the computer for clinics, prices, their success rates and what treatments they did it was a lot, and it was really hard," said Pamela.
"Without help from someone like Andrew many people can find themselves stuck. When I first met him I thought what a great idea to help people find out their options with IVF that has experience."
The International Fertility Company is currently working in partnership with clinics across the globe to offer a free IVF cycle to patients on a first-come basis including Greece, Malaysia, Spain and Cyprus among other countries.
Pamela said going abroad for IVF she felt treated "more like a human," and although she understands why NHS services are strained said the process "felt like a conveyor belt," which allowed patients to fall off the end with no next steps or advice.
She had gone through a gruelling process of monitoring her ovulation for between three and four cycles before starting her on tablets for six months, and then onto injections, before even being considered for the IVF list. Pamela's first IVF on the NHS failed, she fell pregnant on the second but miscarried and due to the NHS changing guidelines she was never offered a third.
"The NHS I felt starts you on basic treatments and builds it up to IVF. They never actually did any miscarriage tests until I was having my son after doing my treatment abroad. It was never actually investigated until I have the son that I have now," Pamela continued.
She explained: "It's like a conveyor belt, you go through all the different stages and when they can't treat you anymore that's it, you fall off the end and they don't give you advice on what your next steps should be or alternative places to get treatment. You are just sort of left to navigate through the world of IVF on your own.
"In the UK you have to wait a long time. There is a huge difference, as all this is readily available when you go abroad and you are paying less. When you go private in the UK they try and push extra treatments on you but abroad I do feel they treat you like more of a person and a couple, they do feel like they care more for you."
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Adding: "If you go abroad they are willing to spend time with you and ensure you have the exact medications you need, because there is the idea of the medications costing more so they would give you a higher dose abroad if you are needing it and not responding to it. It's totally different, and a lot better abroad."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “NHS IVF treatment access in Scotland is the fairest and most equitable in the UK with all new patients referred, subject to access criteria, eligible for up to three full cycles of treatment.
“We have also invested around £40million over five years to improve NHS IVF waiting times to ensure that 90% of new couples are screened for treatment within 12 months of referral. This was exceeded for the last quarter, published 31 May 2022, with all eligible patients from all NHS Boards being screened within 12 months. We continue to work with centres to ensure this standard continues to be met.”
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